Date: 1905
Source: Lenin Collected Works, vol. 26
Pages: 271-274

1302
EXCERPTS FROM "VOSSISCHE ZEITUNG" AND "JUGEND" ON THE DRAFT "CONSTITUTION" AND A CARICATURE OF THE "PARLIAMENT".

Vossische Zeitung. 28 November [19]05. Editorial: "A Constitution for the Russian Empire."

There is an account of the commission given to Yermolov to draw up a constitution, and it is stated:

"This is an agreement 'in principle,' and Prince Bismarck once said that agreement in principle is a polite form of refusal."

And "Jugend" publishes a caricature in which the president of the Russian Zemstvo Assembly says to the delegates: whoever is against the government proposal, I request you go to the right (and on the right a Cossack with a whip is hidden).

1302
EXCERPTS FROM "FRANKFURTER ZEITUNG": ON THE LIBERAL MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA AND ON THE WORKS OF GENERAL LOPPE CONCERNING THE MILITIA SYSTEM OF THE ARMY.

"Frankfurter Zeitung," 18 March 1905 (morning edition, no. 4).

The Liberal Movement in Kiev (dated 11 March, from the newspaper's own correspondent).

A conversation with a liberal lawyer: ..."One can stop a glacier sooner than the present liberal movement"... something substantial will come out of the Bulygin Commission, so they say. "The government is making far too many mistakes from its own point of view. Thus it ought not, in its own interest, to have carried out the experiment with Mirski—the experiment that advanced us at a single stroke by 5 years. This is a success that spurs us on to further action. True, I do not know how long we can endure this tension. In any case, we who are fighting for our freedom, for Russia's freedom, are no longer normal people. You will feel this even if you do not speak Russian, as soon as you enter any company of educated people. A new spirit has seized us, because we now know that the government is on a slippery slope. Of course, before our wishes become reality, anything is still possible—just remember the beating of children in Kursk. It is not for sport that even our most peace-loving comrades carry revolvers despite the prohibition. They do not wish to be defenseless when the bureaucracy proclaims a struggle against the intelligentsia. But this counter-blow of the bureaucracy cannot prevent the fate of the government." The correspondent describes this lawyer as belonging to the militant opposition.

A doctor spoke to the correspondent (a doctor who has returned from Manchuria and wishes to write a book about the war)...

..."As for the development of affairs within the country, I am more pessimistic than my friends, who are good people but poor practical politicians. Within the country I place my hopes only on the Socialist-Revolutionaries and on Marshal Oyama. The government is losing its head these days; in one day it issues three manifestoes that contradict each other, then it recalls the well-known method of diversion through the beloved anti-intelligentsia, anti-Jewish and anti-Armenian 'riots,' then again tries to gain time. In short, it is hysterical. This is understandable, of course, given its weakened organism; its blood has too few red corpuscles and too many 'phagocytes.' Speaking in medical terms, the country now exhibits all the symptoms of revolution; this is also evidenced by the fact that all sorts of dark elements smell the revolution and believe that the moment has come when they can conduct their dirty business. It is very unpatriotic that we must wish for the victory of the Japanese; for if Kuropatkin wins, a period of reaction will set in that may last 20, 40 years. The ruling circles, in which Witte plays the role of Reynard the Fox, think only of this victory......"